Broad Green Pictures is shutting down its production division after a string of troubled releases. The company will lay off about 15 of its 75 employees and put around 50 of its projects into turnaround.
Brothers Gabriel and Daniel Hammond launched Broad Green Pictures (named for the street they grew up on in Potomac, Md.) in 2014. The company has had a string of lackluster releases over the past couple years. Broad Green released Terrence Malick’s two most recent films, and while the director has prestige, his movies are not known for being box-office hits: Knight of Cups (2015) earned $566,000, and this year’s Song to Song took in just $443,684. The company attempted a wider release with 2016 comedy Bad Santa 2, which only earned $17.7 million. Its latest release, genre film Wish Upon, debuted to only $5.4 million in July.
Matt Alvarez, who joined Broad Green as president of production in May 2016, is expected to exit his post later this year when his contract expires.
The company plans to continue its acquisitions and distribution business. Its most successful release to date was an acquisition, the Robert Redford-Nick Nolte starrer A Walk in the Woods, which earned $37.4 million.
Broad Green is currently in postproduction on Villa Capri, Ron Shelton’s comedy that stars Morgan Freeman, Tommy Lee Jones and Rene Russo. Beyond that, the company has a number of films in various stages of development, including the latest from Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12, Glass Castle), a civil rights movie titled Just Mercy, and the Bella Thorne-starrer Bad Influence.
